Territorial conquest

[Repius]

I've been following DarkandLight development for a lot of time now, and what I liked most was the territorial conquest feature. This is: being able for a well organized guild or group of players to build and manage a fortress or an holding, also defending it from the opposite faction. I would like to see something like that in PS which will be a huge world as been stated before. This could also be related to the political and economical aspect of PS, with players really meaning something in the gameworld.

[ThomPhoenix]

Well, there are going to be player owned houses. I don't know about the conquest part, maybe guild owned houses which can be taken during guild wars.
Anyway, this stuff is all for the distant future.

[Zan]

I would even like to see planeshift go beyond guild houses and towards guild settlements and cities.Any guild could have control over a city of their own. Allied guilds could share a city and of course the richer or stronger the guild the bigger the city can be. Also guild member's spawns could be moved to their cities. The NPC's in cities would also be more kind and generous towards their rulers. Guild members get discounts on wares and have an easier time acquiring information or quests from NPC's in the city they control.

I'm thinking of a few different ways to obtain a city ... the first being building their own, something which has already been done in many games. Your guild just finds an empty space and starts building their own town there.

Other options would be to acquire political influences, come to work under a vigesimi or maybe even an octarch who would be in charge of cities like Hydlaa or Ojaveda. Of course this position isn't permanent and while one person may be in charge they would have to be backed by one or more influential guilds to stay in power. The guild would then pick up certain aspects like providing the city guard, supplies, owning stores and renting out houses or workspaces, running the tavern, etc. The influence needed could be acquired through roleplaying or questing, doing powerful people many favors. Mainly I'm guessing the GM's would integrate shifts of power into events they'll host though.

A third option could be invading and taking a city over with force. If you have a guild full of fighters and don't want to spend the money building your own city, you just let another guild build one for you which you then happily take off their hands with the optional bloodshed. Of course this option should be the hardest to pull off and actually require sieges. When a guild owned city is being targeted for attack, both guilds need to declare war with eachother first. The defending guild will also enjoy some benefits as long as they stay in their town. The towns will most likely have defensive structures like walls, towers, anti-siege equipment, ... on top of that defending guilds should get a number (depending on the guild's membersize) of NPC troops to defend their town when there aren't (m)any guild members online.
The attacking side could attempt to 'starve/bore' them out by simply waiting for any members that come out to kill them off until they give their town up or break the siege by storming out in full force. Of course their defensive benefits will be lost when they leave their city ground. There should also be siege engines, projectile launchers, climbing devices, siege-magic maybe even and more available to the attacking guild if they can afford them.

Lastly I think having a rule that no guild can be in (partial) control of more than one city at a time would be good. It'd prevent powerful guilds from controlling all cities and leaving newer guilds no chance and it would prevent guilds from taking over city after city by force. When you already have a city you can conquer another if you like but then your old city goes to the opposing guild by default, unless they refuse it then it can be claimed by whichever guild claims it first.

It would be an interesting aspect to bring politics and rulership into play ... but difficult to balance and keep in check maybe.

[Torik]

I like Zans idea. I think that this would add alot of depth to the game and give it an exciting twist.

And if they had to be at war to attack each other what if one side desides to end the war before they attacker started the seige? that would be really unfair to the attackers. And it wouldnt be fair to the defenders if they could be attacked at any time. Thats a great idea but theres alot of problems that can or will occur.

[Nikodemus]

Yes, and near cities and settlements to own, there would be also mines. Anybody wanting to dig there, would have to pay some little tax to the owning guild. There would be also possibility to sell the digged ore at the shop near the mine entrance. Mainly because the ore is heavy and it is better to transport it to town with a cart. It's where we can implement another good idea - Raids. While there are guards protecting the caravan, there would be bandits who want to steal it. There would be problems with pvp fighting, but i'm sure some simple rules could define when it could happen, because it is needed if we want to have such raids. Maybe the caravan could be attacked only on not safe grounds, which would be outside the mine and cities territory. Maybe the attackers would have to preset themselves as bandits, because not every stranger on the road have the right to pvp with caravan guards.

I think we need a bit of simcity, ability to spent money on stuff inside cities, mines and other places. It would give a nice bost to economy and maybe there would be finally somethink else than skills on what we spent trias.

[Torik]

adding to your "simcity idea", you could pay the banks a certain amount and it would go into an account that is used for town gains. The trusted builders could take that money and buy materials and pay companys to build a certain building that the community wanted.

I also think that there should be an IG poll box where people can vote on what new buildings they want, and there could be a poll box in each city.

[Zan]

For the raids you could also use guild wars, guilds that are at war with eachother can raid other's caravans. Easiest solution I can think of .. it keeps the focus off new players and all since it's a guild thing. Of course with all those options in place we'll probably be seeing a lot of guild wars, possibly even constant hostilities between certain guilds.

[Torik]

constant wars seem fine to me. gives people stuff to do  and requires people to be on gaurd more often. The Vaalgaurd could make a healthy profit from escorts

[Repius]

Why carts? They are too big for those little roads. Why not make players transport ore, like peons in warcraft. You will have a sack on your shoulder and move slowly. So more players could transport ore at the same time. More players transporting ore, more ore per minute will be gathered, but more guards to escort the group are needed too.

[Nikodemus]

Carts, because:
- they carry a lot
- the animals which pull it, don't have to be payd and still eat food for less tria
- its is easier to guard it
- its faster than overburdened people
Because of these reasons people used to make roads.
I'm not sure if there would be anybody wanting to spent life walking with ore on the back for food

[dying_inside]

Well, thats a nice idea. And considering that this is in the distant future then yeah I think we can dream for a bit

I think that this could be incorparated into the guilds system, you could have a set of buildings that are availiable to build through expansion.
For instance you could build your headquarters, after that you might want to set up a couple of outposts or walls to protect your guild.

You could have a storage pit, where people keep things for the guild, weapons, items etc. Anything that might be of use, and this could be a building that you acess via a "keeper" of stock. Similar to a shop, but he/she simply holds onto items so that you can click and take them if you should lose your items.
Also located in the pit is a banker who keeps all the guilds money. This can only be accessed by the top 3 positions in the guild so that they can use it or distribute it wisely.

you could build these by mining stone and chopping wood and contributing them to the storage pit where they would be kept for use. Also there should be a set limit to the number of building that a guild can have. so it doesnt start into a whole new city, becuase this could become extremely server heavy without a limit if cities started springing up everywhere....

[Ahriman]

Maybe if one is in the arena and if one duels th eother, maybe they can put up a bet and give their betted items to the judge (an NPC) an whoever wins gets all the items. To bet houses you could have like "Ownership Parchments" or something. It would be cool. 

[Easton]

Being in a guild whose prime goal is to resettle a lost city, i can't say i disagree with this idea.

One problem is people who may abuse this by making a city that has absolutely nothing to do with the Planeshift Setting. But i think by the time we get to guilds building cities, there will be enough ways to root out these people before they become so influential as to have their own city. But yes, excellent idea, one i really really hope will come true, and i see no reason why not... except for the previously stated one...

Easton Ghent